Bell Pepper
by silversheath
Summary: Eli doesn't even like bell peppers that much, but if the delivery girl keeps looking like that, she might change her mind. Or: the struggles of a music major trying to make it big while also failing miserably at seduction. It's a hard knock life.


"Harasho," says Eli, and flips through her notepad quickly, blue-lined pages flicking through her nails like the fluttering of wings, "we're going to get a medium, plain cheese, and a small with bell peppers?"

"Sounds good to me," says Nico, and leans against the keyboard with crossed arms, tight as a pretzel. Her mouth is twisted, so Eli runs a hand through her own hair and resists the urge to sigh.

"Are you satisfied with that, Nico?"

"We've been at this for ten minutes," Maki drones, and her long fingers strike a few chords along the keys. Half a second later, as though she can't help it, she's winding in harmonies and humming at the bench.

"I'm just ordering now." Eli ends the conversation and turns away from her friends, through the cramped condominium hallway and into the bright kitchen with the landline telephone.

"Why don't you use your cell phone?" Nico calls over the soft notes of Maki's absentminded piano. "I want to hear what you're saying!"

"Why do you care? It's pizza." Eli can barely make out Maki's voice, and she just rolls her eyes and picks up the phone.

When the buzzer goes off, Eli leaves off her music theory homework and picks up the credit card she's had at her elbow for the last twenty minutes. Maki, scribbling in the blanks of some anatomy worksheet, can't be bothered to look up as Eli steps over Nico playing Angry Birds on the floor to maneuver her way to the door.

"I've got a mid-cheese and a small bell pepper for you," says the delivery girl with hair dark as dusk-dying sunset, eyes on the slip of paper gripped in her sleek purple nails, and Eli drops her credit card on the stoop.

There's a brief pause. The air is saturated with the level of awkward, like the world is holding its breath, or maybe Eli's just imagining things and forgetting to inhale. Either way, they both stare at the cerulean rectangle of plastic lying at a disappointing angle on the rubbery welcome mat. The delivery girl blinks, once, then smiles with an over-proportionate, predatory grin. It's not a nice smile. It's one that says she knows exactly what's going on here.

Eli's running through excuses, pickup lines, the easiest way to get plane tickets back to Russia in less than five minutes, and what exactly she should be saying to the cutest girl she's ever seen in her life. She feels like such a useless lesbian.

Finally, the delivery girl bends down – at the waist – picks up the credit card with two fingers of a hand that isn't holding pizza boxes, and rolls up slowly, vertebrae by vertebrae, in an agonizingly sultry way that should be illegal. She's a touch shorter than Eli, yet somehow manages to look down through her lashes as she says, "I'll run this for you."

"Thanks a lot," Eli says, and wonders how the words don't come out chipped and mangled through her chattering teeth. When she closes the door, two boxes clutched hard to her chest like barriers against her own pounding heart, she almost screams. Maki and Nico are peering around the corner, eyebrows raised.

"No, I don't want pizza. We just had it last night," Nico complains.

"There's no way you could possibly want more. It's not healthy," Maki adds, and runs her pink highlighter over a chunk of her page, lines steady.

"Hey!" Nico says indignantly, "This is our condo, we can eat whatever we want, healthy or not!"

"I'm just saying."

"Don't squabble," Eli interjects before they get on a roll. "Nico, Maki already knows we're roommates. Why did you invite her to be part of our startup idol group if you're going to fight all the time?"

Nico shrugs aggressively, little shoulders pointed, and Eli tries to return to the subject of dinner. "But seriously. I'm feeling pizza."

"Get some for yourself, then. I'm making pasta, or something."

"Will there be whole tomatoes?" asks Maki, now interested, and Eli tries not to feel pathetic as she types the number for the pizza place across town.

"That will be $6.99, please," says the sweet, pale-haired delivery girl with the heart-shaped face, and Eli swallows the crushing disappointment as she forks over a ten-dollar bill.

"Keep the change," she says.

"$6.99 for a small bell pepper pizza!" says the bubbly high schooler, and short wisps of ginger hair are scraggling free of her black company visor as she bounces on Eli's front stoop.

"You can… keep the change," Eli mumbles, and tries not to slam the door in frustration.

"How many pizzas do you think Bell Pepper needs over there?" asks Rin curiously as she puts down the phone.

Umi pauses in her sweeping along the linoleum flooring and snorts. "She's ordered what, one pizza per night for almost a week straight, now?"

"Yeah, and another one tonight; that's not normal," Rin says as a fresh pizza slowly rolls out of the conveyor oven, and hops off of her stool to transfer it from the sweltering heat to a travel box, small hands folding and sliding with lazy accuracy. "Kotori, delivery's ready!"

Kotori pads into the kitchen from around front where customers await tomato-slathered goodness, and puts on her visor. "A nice elderly couple just came in." Rin dashes off to get their order.

Nozomi leans on the dough press hard, and smirks to herself.

Eli knocks on her neighbor's door with possibly more strength than necessary.

"Hey," says the woman as she swings back the door inquiringly, "what can I do for you?"

"Good morning," Eli starts, but her enthusiastic neighbor interrupts.

"Hey! I recognize you! We're in the same music theory class, down at the university-"

"Yes," Eli says, "I'm Ayase Eli." She didn't actually know they had ever interacted once in their lives, actually, but apparently she's at least recognizable. "I live one condominium over."

"Kousaka Honoka, nice to meet you!" Eli gets her hand pumped vigorously in a way that is both polite and overly energetic. "How are you?"

"I was just… wondering if you liked pizza. Much. Or at all," Eli says lamely, but Honoka smiles.

"Yeah, sure, who doesn't?"

"Bell peppers?"

"Definitely! Did you want to study together sometime? Midterms aren't until March, I think, but…"

"Sure," says Eli, who guesses that making friends isn't exactly an awful thing. "But also I have about five pizzas in my refrigerator, and I was thinking you could take them off my hands. So to speak."

Honoka blinks. "You what? Why?"

"It's a long story."

"Alright, this is so far out of normal that I'm starting to become concerned," Umi says faintly, and places the phone receiver back in the cradle with a slow frown of worry, a crease between her bright eyes like the twist of stone, "Do we know how many people live in Bell Pepper's house?"

"It's not even a house," says Rin, who's been to the place every other night for nearly a month. "It's a condo a few blocks from the university. Upperclassmen lease there."

"Pizza parties at college aren't completely unheard of," points out Kotori optimistically, who has been switching off with Rin at the condo, just to keep checking it out.

"I think we can agree there's some level of deviance from the norm, though," Rin says, and taps her chin with floury fingers.

Nozomi, putting pepperoni on a large pizza, raises her voice. "Maybe she's hoping to see someone."

Rin snickers. "She doesn't even look at me anymore, just pushes $10 my way and nearly runs."

"She does the same to me," Kotori adds, and smiles. "She's really quite nice, though. During the first week, she told me she liked my hair ribbons."

"Should we stage an intervention?" asks Umi curiously. "Is that the responsible thing to do?"

"If it hits three weeks straight, we should call the police or something," Nozomi agrees, but ruins her good advice with a smirk. She can't stop smiling lately.

"Alright," responds Umi, who doesn't quite understand when Nozomi teases her, but Rin changes the subject from the mildly worrisome one of Bell Pepper.

"Hey guys, my best friend's dance recital is this weekend. Valentine's Day, at the high school. Kotori's been designing some of the outfits, and I got tickets! We should all go."

"It was for my designer's course. It'll be fun," explains Kotori, somehow managing to mash dough gracefully. There aren't even flecks across her forearms. Nozomi looks down at herself, covered in pizza ingredients like it's the newest spring fashion. Whatever.

"We have our Valentine's Day special, though," says Umi. "A heart-shaped medium pizza with pink sauce."

"The dance is in the afternoon, before the dinner rush," Rin retorts. "Come on guys, please?"

"I'll come," says Nozomi, who does like dance, but also doesn't really want to work.

"Yay! Nozomi!" says Rin gleefully, and this makes Umi cave, not wanting to disappoint their youngest co-worker.

"This is reaching epidemic levels," Nico says disdainfully as she roots around the refrigerator, shuffling box after box from her view.

"I know!" says Eli, who is a mess. She feels like she should be clutching her face and dragging her nails down in sorrow. "But she was so, so interesting, I just have to at least talk to her without behaving like a block of incommunicable wood. She doesn't even answer the phone at the pizza place!"

"God, you're the gayest gay to ever gay," Nico grumbles, and extricates an apple from behind the many pizza remnants. "Have you tried going over there and just asking?"

She doesn't deny the charge, but… "I can't think of anything creepier than going over there now," Eli admits shamefully. "I've gotten so many pizzas. They probably think I'm wildly insane."

"Well at least you can't order tomorrow," says Nico, and takes a big bite of her fruit, small mouth gorging a truly unimpressive, toothy hole, "you have that dance thing that you guest choreographed."

"Technically it's in the early afternoon," Eli reminds her. "And my students dance around 3, which means I could theoretically be back here by 6, if their little after-party thing doesn't go too long."

"I bet they'll have pizza after their recital," says Nico relentlessly, apple juice dripping down her arm, and Eli buries her head in her hands.

Valentine's Day

"Miss Ayase!" clamor the elementary and middle schoolers, and they swarm her like a sea of eager kittens as she presses through the backdoors of the stage.

"You can all call me Eli, remember?" says Eli, and out of habit fixes one of her students' hair, tucking the wispy copper flyaways back into the bun with a quick affection. She gets a hard hug around her waist for thanks.

"Sorry, Eli," says the high school leader of the group, Hanayo. Her glasses are put away for today's performance. It opens up her wide, soft features, and Eli is quickly reminded of a teddy bear. "They're very excited a dance major was able to teach them this season."

Eli glances over the heads of the excitable kids, along the dark panels backstage and the heavy, sweeping curtains like wings. "Is everything about ready?"

"Yep, but hold on before you find your seat," says Hanayo, and Eli's instantly grabbed by about six hopping children, little hands on her purse's strap and wrists.

She laughs, and starts to spin, and when Hanayo comes back with a crinkling mass of scarlet roses in a bouquet, Eli's on the ground with the students.

"Thanks for being such an amazing teacher," says Hanayo shyly, echoed by several little dancers. "I hope we can work together again."

Eli takes the flowers and nestles them in her arms with the careful handling of a small animal. "Ah, jeez, thanks guys." She doesn't know what to say, and she's spared the need of having to declaim fully when another high school hurtles backstage, coat flying.

"Hanayo!"

"Rin!" Hanayo is covered in a ball of energy and a floppy mass of pale reddish hair.

"Good luck, good luck, you guys will be amazing! I brought everyone from work to see you!" says the newcomer, and Eli brings her flowers up to her face, smacking herself in the nose with the firm petals of two dozen roses and a wave of the sweet flower scent, because that's one of the pizza deliverers.

All she's done is draw attention to herself. "Who's that?" When she can't think rapidly enough to get out of her situation, Eli accepts defeat and lowers her flowers, slowly enough that she can pretend she's looking at her watch. The show starts in fifteen minutes. There's enough noise out front that the babble can be heard backstage, small muttering filtering through the blocks of space.

"No way! Bell Pepper!"

"I, what?"

"That's what we call you! In the kitchens," Rin says, and stops hanging off Hanayo's arm for a minute, long enough to look up at the considerably taller Eli. "You must really like pizza."

"Ah, I," Eli stutters out, and Hanayo checks the time on her phone and gasps.

"Come on everyone, back to the dressing room. We have to do the pre-show cheer!" The student dancers waddle off, and Hanayo turns to Eli, who realizes she's in a position that suggests immediate and shameful departure. "We'll call you onstage for the final acknowledgements, and you know where your reserved seat is! Enjoy the show! Rin, I'll call you afterwards, okay?" Rin touches her fingertips to Hanayo's shoulder, and then the other girl scurries off, leaving Eli alone with the pizza delivery girl, who's smiling with a friendly yet somehow mocking display of teeth. Oh boy.

"So, you dance, too?"

"A… a little," says Eli, who clutches her flowers tighter to her chest defensively.

"Well, no wonder you stay so skinny with all the pizzas you've been eating! I love pizza too, personally, but I'm kind of thinking your appreciation of it is bordering on weird." Rin bounces on her toes, a quick one-two shift, and then says, "Well, I guess I'll see you tonight then. I'm on delivery." She's about to leave when Eli remembers she has a voice.

"Who else?"

"What?"

Rin twists at the waist – wow, she's flexible – and sort of dances in place as Eli swallows and says, "Who else? Has been on delivery lately? I've… only ever seen you and the girl with the ribbons. And one other girl, once."

"Ribbons… Kotori? And we're the only ones on delivery, unless you count Nozomi, who fills in when we can't."

"Right," says Eli, who is rolling the name Nozomi around her mind and also trying to not look like a brick incapable of conversation.

It doesn't work though, since Rin waves and dashes out the side door to the main stage in a hurry.

Nozomi likes the dance, likes the adorable kids waving their arms mostly-in-sync like the bare branches rattling in the winter wind; likes the older dancers, too, the women with the graceful reaching hands and sharp, perfect movements. It's great.

The high school theatre is decorated with red paper heads as big as her head and garlands of white and pink Cupids cut painstakingly, and Nozomi puts her hands on a heart and smiles to herself before Umi gestures her to get out of the aisle.

At the end of the recital, Rin's friend, the mousy girl who sometimes hangs around the pizza shop comes out of the curtains and bows a little, then waves her arm at the audience and calls up a woman from the front row, who strides up to the stage with excellent, confident steps, all swirling blonde ponytail and legs, and Nozomi sits up straighter and coughs. It's her.

"Wait, guys, is that," she hears Kotori start, a few seats down.

Rin's friend Hanayo, onstage, calls, "And a huge thank you to our assistant choreographer, from the university, Ayase Eli!"

"Bell Pepper dances, yeah!" says Rin excitedly, and tugs on Nozomi's arm. "I saw her earlier and forgot to say!"

"That's my neighbor," says Honoka, seated between Umi and Kotori.

Well, thinks Nozomi. There's no better sign than this.

Eli's trying to unlock her car door while also balancing the huge bouquet of roses when she hears, "So, bell pepper pizzas?" She drops her flowers into the thin layer of slush in the parking lot.

The delivery girl, that Nozomi, is a few feet away. She comes in closer to swoop down and pick up Eli's flowers, brushing the dusty snow from the petals with careful swishing movements.

"Oh. Hey," Eli says, and it's all very anticlimactic. She can feel how flushed her face is getting, like every bit of heat in her body has decided to relocate to her cheeks and lips, and Nozomi has a smile like high noon.

"Your name is Ayase Eli," Nozomi muses, and puts one hand to her mouth slowly, deliberately. "And you like pizza far too much."

"Not really," Eli feels the need to explain. "I've had… way too many, recently."

"I know," says Nozomi, and there's laughter in her eyes, the best kind, like starlight or full-blooming lilies, and a twisting ribbon of warmth starts in Eli's stomach and winds its way up around her throat. "But I brought you a coupon for a medium pizza from the joint I work at," Nozomi says, and flashes a colorful slip of paper in her hand. "It feeds two."

"Right," chokes Eli, and feels like she might drop her flowers again.

"So, if you order again tonight-" Nozomi grabs Eli's hand, curls her fingers around the coupon; closes her fist, "-I'll be delivering. And maybe we can chat at your place. If you want."

"Yeah. That sounds, that sounds great." Eli stares at her hand, Nozomi's dark nails and her own ice-blue ones entwined.

"Happy Valentine's Day."

"I didn't know I could make such a strong impression," Nozomi says mildly, and untangles the thin string of cheese from her slice of pizza, eyes on Eli.

"I didn't mean to drop my card the first time," Eli blurts, and finds herself fluttering her hands on her lap like she's trying to restrain a particularly vigorous animal. She feels like an idiot. She tries to focus on Nozomi sitting kitty-corner from her at her own condo, (previously impossible!) pretty Nozomi with the night-black uniform and visor stamped with the orange logo of the pizzeria and a smile that could drop angels. Pretty Nozomi with the smooth, shiny nails and long fingers and round, sweet face… who's looking at Eli with a raised eyebrow and an expression of devilish amusement.

"You're staring, Eli."

Eli says something that probably comes out along the lines of "yeah," but just ends up being embarrassing garble. She takes a breath and rallies herself. "Yeah, I am, Nozomi. Because you're beautiful."

Nozomi smiles and doesn't try to hide the flush that spreads across her pale face; a splash of splotchy red and a duck of her head. "Oh."

"I definitely feel like a complete weirdo in hindsight," says Eli, and snags a corner of crust that Nozomi's thrown back into the box. "I know I probably came off like some sort of creep."

"Maybe a little," says Nozomi, who has somehow crept closer. "But think of what an interesting meeting story we'll get to tell everyone."

"Everyone?" Eli breathes. She is so bad at this, but Nozomi's hand burns its way across the back of her neck; an agonizing scrape and slide of the nails and warm palm dragging her in.

There's not even enough time to bemoan the fact that their first kiss will taste like bell peppers, but Eli can't care.

It's not unusual to see Eli scowling into the mirror, but Nozomi blinks when she notices Eli inching closer and closer to the glass, rigid frown and tight eyebrows coming into larger focus until she's nose-to-mirror.

"Eli," says Nozomi, and can't keep a laugh out of her voice. "What are you doing?"

"They'll think I'm unnaturally weird," Eli says, and puts her forehead to the wall with a defeated sort of hunch. "Two weeks straight of pizza? I still can't believe I was gutsy enough for that."

"Gutsy?" Nozomi asks, and can't stop herself from touching Eli's shoulders, pulling her in for a hug. She's warm, and her body's thrumming with quiet energy - nerves, probably, but Nozomi likes the way Eli feels, like the way her skin is smooth and firm but gives anyway to Nozomi's touch - sometimes she'll pretend the way Eli's trembles slide into her bones are… from some sort of higher power, like some god has seen them together, blessed them, let them touch because it was meant to be. Or maybe Nozomi's just grossly in love with this awkward fucktruck of a girl, which is also an explanation, but a less fun one.

"Eli, they think you're hilarious, and amazing," Nozomi says, and holds her girlfriend tighter than necessary about the waist. "You've met them all before."

"Not all together - not at the pizzeria, the place of my shame," Eli mumbles, and holds onto Nozomi's hair in a pathetic fashion.

"Whatever," says Nozomi, and kisses her, giddy with the sensation of Eli's hands along her jaw. It feels like sunrise; it feels like the easiest, laziest love.

"BELL PEPPER IS IN THE BUILDING," roars Rin as Nozomi ushers Eli through the automatic doors. It's only noon, so there are exactly 2 customers at the booths in the restaurant section - Rin's bellow causes one of them to drop his slice of pizza into the box, face-down. He sighs.

"Good afternoon, Rin," Nozomi says and pulls Eli back from her sudden, half-hearted lunge of escape from the pizzeria.

"It smells good in here," Eli admits as Nozomi adjusts her work visor and marches them to the counter where Rin bounces on her toes behind a cash register and watches Eli with enthusiastic eyes.

"Kotori! Umi! Look!"

"Umi's Manager and Kotori's mother owns the place," Nozomi explains to Eli as her boss and co-worker emerge from the kitchen. Kotori has a smile like daffodils across her narrow face - her eyes shine with pride and Nozomi tries not to grin back like a dork. Umi's clutching a tube of tomato paste in her hand and is clearly scoping Eli for any trace of negative qualities.

Eli doesn't give her anything to judge. "I'm Ayase Eli," she says boldly, clearly, and shakes Umi's hand like a pro. She's so put together, beautiful - Eli's radiant when she feels like she has something to prove - in this case, it's for Nozomi. "It's nice to finally get to see you all together."

"Likewise," says Kotori gracefully.

"She's got a good shake," Umi tells Nozomi in an aside that everyone can hear.

"So Rin," says Nozomi pointedly. "I can take register for now, if you're cool with giving Eli a tour of the back?"

"It's not very busy," Kotori says. "We can all go."

"No, better we're not all crammed in there. Go, shoo," says Nozomi, and Eli swallows visibly.

Nozomi listens carefully from the register for signs of Eli making a hasty escape through the supply door, but all she gets are bursts of laughter, and once Rin's voice screaming "BEANS? GENIUS!"

After about 15 minutes Eli rounds the corner from the kitchen and looks grateful to see Nozomi has not moved an inch. Rin is right behind Eli, looking starstruck - Kotori and Umi bring up the rear, whispering.

"Like the place?" Nozomi asks, but she's really saying what did they do to you?

"Very professional," says Eli, meaning it wasn't bad at all.

"Cool," says Nozomi, and ends up just looks at Eli with her high ponytail and sweet blue eyes.

"Cool," repeats Eli, gazing back. There's a pause.

"This is adorable," says Rin. "But Nozomi, did you know Eli's in a band?"

"Not a band," says Nozomi, who manages to tear her eyes away from Ayase Eli through sheer strength of character. "A singing group."

"Right, and they're Bibi! They're the ones with that single on the radio, Cutie Panther!" Rin stresses, and actually grabs a handful of her hair, a short ginger bob that doesn't offer much grip. "We're in the presence of a famous woman!"

"I'm not that famous," Eli flushes, but Rin shakes her head.

"It's like, the best song I've ever heard. Everyone at school loves it, I swear to God it's playing constantly, everywhere. I know Nishikino Maki from Calculus but now I know two members! Please invite me to famous people things!"

"So we're gonna leave now," interjects Nozomi, and Rin deflates. "But I'll bring her back. You enjoyed your tour, right Eli?"

"Definitely," says Eli, and smiles, genuine and bright, the sort of expression that makes Nozomi hungry just to hold Eli's hand, anything to touch her and know she's real.

"We'll see you around," Umi says politely.

"Come by anytime," Kotori concludes.

"So Nozomiiiii," trills Rin, and Nozomi knows what's about to happen but doesn't stop kneading the pizza dough, just rolls her eyes and tilts back her visor with one flour-powdered hand.

"Yes, sunshine?"

Rin pirouettes up, arms full of shakily balanced boxes and grins smugly at Nozomi through a crack in the cardboard. She looks like a feline who's tagged a mouse with the tips of her claws. She's such a dork. "How's Bell Pepper?"

"We're to call her Eli, because that's her name and we use names here," calls Umi from around the front, who has apparently been listening in intensely.

"What about Eli?" yells Kotori, also manning the front counter, and before Nozomi can finish precisely shaping her dough she's surrounded by her coworkers, all rubbing sauce and pizza dust from their fingertips, eyes eager.

Nozomi sets her half-rolled dough on the flat work table carefully, letting Rin hop in suspense and Umi huff a little before she answers. "You guys have seen her every Friday night for almost four months. I'm not sure what more you want," she says, but can't stop the curling smile that teases at the corners of her mouth. She's so happy. It's so exhaustively amazing to see Eli's swishing ponytail and hear her French nail tips tapping on the counter, falsely impatient for pizza from the shop while Rin hops up and down the bar stools with Hanayo. God, it's lovely.

"It's been five whole days since she's dropped by," frets Umi, and Kotori puts an arm around her shoulders and nods in support.

"I'm going to her dorm tonight. And really, five days gone only means two days until she comes back," Nozomi reminds them primly, and allows Rin to punch her excitedly in the side; feels fine when Kotori pecks her on the cheek, returns Umi's satisfied exhale with her own half-coiled enthusiastic grin. Her coworkers are easy to love, too.

"They still call me Bell Pepper?" Eli says neutrally, and sighs when Nozomi laughs.

"That's not a name that's going away anytime soon." Nozomi feels like she's flying, and grabs Eli around the waist and spins her for no particular reason, avoiding the furniture neatly. Eli's hands dart to Nozomi's waist and grip nervously.

"Careful, Nozomi," Eli says, but her cheeks are flushed like the first tint of sunrise, something glassy and pale and distant. Nozomi gives her a little kiss, to take out that distance, and also just because she can.

"Take your public displays of affection elsewhere," Nico says while sticking out her tongue, scribbling into her notebook on the sofa, legs curled up under her as though Nozomi and Eli's relationship is spilling across the floor like lava, and Nico'll be damned if it contaminates her toes.

Eli tugs Nozomi closer, but relinquishes her hold after a second, moving to just hold hands. "I pay half the rent - I can kiss this lovely girl here."

"I'm just kidding," Nico admits, and swings her notebook around to reveal a mildly passable sketch of Nozomi and Eli mid-twirl. Eli has a mostly-anatomically correct rendering, but Nozomi's hair looks like twin broomsticks emerging from the sides of her head. They both laud Nico's drawing heavily anyway. "You two are so grossly perfect that sometimes I just sob in the night thinking about it." A pause. "But then I remember I'm me, and I'm also perfect, so it doesn't matter."

"Alright," says Nozomi peaceably. "Got a lot of homework tonight?"

"Yeah, but I'm still going to Maki's piano recital. You two up for that?"

"Oh, shoot, I forgot that was tonight," Eli says, and drops Nozomi's hand to dart over to her planner, abandoned on the table. She flips some pages, hair falling into her eyes.

"We have the usual Friday night visit to the pizzeria," Nozomi says, "but honestly I don't think the gang would be opposed to attending Nishikino Maki's performance. I'll call them up."

"Cool," Nico drawls, "Oh, and our weird neighbor. Don't forget her," and puts pencil to paper once more.

"FLAWLESS!" Rin and Hanayo yell up to the stage as Maki takes her final bows and walks quickly into the curtains at the side. Umi and Nico clap politely while Honoka and Kotori bounce and holler praise, their soft, high voice twining around Rin and little Hanayo's piercing bellows.

"Does she have stage freight?" Nozomi asks Eli, and Eli blinks.

"I don't think so."

"I've been working on another song composition for Bibi," says Maki curtly as the whole gang descends on her backstage. Her parents are off to the side, talking on cell phones. It smells like fancy perfume, and maybe mothballs. Nozomi gets sidetracked trying to figure it out.

"Can we hear it?" asks Hanayo eagerly.

Maki looks at her appraisingly, and Nozomi is surprised at the flicker of nervousness in the high schooler's eyes. "Sure, but not here."

"We can go to the condo," says Eli, and Nozomi feels a faint chill of expectation in her bones as the nine of them clamber out into the evening.


End file.
